Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1887-01-27

this room L gOSslped for an hour with the
Countess de Castenet in that very corner"
For, with the recall of the aforesaid ambas-
sador, the mansion had become a boarding
house, kept by the wife Of departmental
clerk
Perhaps there was nothing in the history Of
the house more quaint and phlosophic than
the story of its present occupant Roger
Fauquier had been departmental clerk for
forty years. 1t was at once his practical
good luck and his misfortune to have been
early appointed to a position which required
a thorough and complete knowledge of the
| formulas and routine of a department that
expended millions of the public funds. Fau-
quier, OH poor salary, diminishing instead
of increasing with his service, had seen sue
cessive administrations bud and blossom and
decay, but had kept his position through the
fact that his knowledge was a necessity to
the successive chiefs and employees Once
it was true that he had been summarily re-
moved by new secretary, to make room for
camp follower, whose exhaustive and intel
lectual services in political campaign had
made him eminently fit for anything; but the
alarming discovery that the new clerks
knowledge of grammar and etymology was
even worse than that of the secretary himself,
and that, through ignorance of detail, the
business of that department was retarded to
damage to the government of over half a
million of dollars, led to the reinstatement of
Mr.. Fauquier-at lower salary. For it was
felt that something was wrong somewhere,
and as it had always been the custom of con-
gress and the administration to cut down sal
aries as the first step to reform, they made old
Mr.. Fauquier a moral example. A gentle
man born, of somewhat expensive tastes,
having lived up to his former salary, this
change brought another bread-winner into
the field, Mrs. Fauquier, who tried, more or
less unsuccessfully, to turn her old southern
habits of hospitality to remunerative account.
But as poor Fauquier could never be pre-
vailed upon to present a bill to a gentleman,
sir, and as some of the scions of the best
southern families were still waiting for, or
had been recently dismissed from, position,
the experiment was pecuniary failure. Yet
the house was of excellent repute and well
patronized; indeed, it was worth something to
see old Fauquier sitting at the head Of his own
table, in something of his ancestral style, re-
lating anecdotes of great men now dead and
gone, interrupted only by occasional visits
from importunate tradesmen.
Prominent among what Mr.. Fauquier
called his "little family" was black-eyed
lady of great powers of fascination, and con-
siderable local reputation as a flirt. Never
theless, these social alterations were
amply condoned by a facile and COM
placent husband, who looked with
lenient and even admiring eye upon the
little lady's amusement, and, to certain ex-
tent, lent tacit Endorsement to her conduct
Nobody minded Hopkinson; in the blaze of
Mrs. Hopkinson's destinations he was COM
pletely lost sight Of A few married women
with unduly sensitive husbands, and several
single ladies of the best and longest standing,
reflected severely on her conduct. The
younger men, of course, admired her, but
think she got her chief support from old
fogies like ourselves. For it is your quiet,
self-conceited, complacent, philosophic,
broad-waisted pater-familias who, after all,
is the one to whom the gay and giddy of the
proverbially impulsive, unselfish sex owe
their place in the social armament. We are
never inclined to be captious; we laugh at as
a folly what our wives and daughters con-
denim as a fault; our "withers are unwrung,"
yet we still confess to the fascinations of a
pretty face. We know, bless us, from dear
experience, the exact value of one woman's
opinion of another; we want our brilliant
little friend to shine; it is only the moths who
will burn their two-penny immature wings
in the flame! And why should they not?
Nature has been pleased to supply more
moths than candles Go to! Give the pretty
creature-be she maid, wife or widow-a
showl And so, my dear sir, while mater
familias bends her black brows in disgust, we
Mistress Anonyma our gracious Endorsement.
And if giddinesS is grateful, or if folly is
friendly-well, of course we can't help that.
Indeed, it rather proves our theory.
had intended to say something about Hop
kinson; but really there is very little to say.
He was invariably good humored A few
ladies once tried to show him that he really
ought to feel worse than he did about the
conduct of his wife; and it is recorded that
Hopkinson, in an excess Of good humor and
kindness, promised to do SO. Indeed, the
good fellow was SO accessible that it is said
young Delaney, of the tape department, con-
fided to Hopiinson his jealousy of rival;
and revealed the awful secret that he de
Lancy) had reason to expect more loyalty
from his Hopkinson's) wife. The good fel-
low is reported to have been very SYM
pathetic, and to have promised Delaney to
lend whatever influence he had with Mrs.
Hopkinson in his favor. "You see," he said
explanatorily to Delaney, "she has a good
deal to attend to lately, and, I suppose, has
got rather careless-that's women's way. But
if can't bring her round I'll speak to CASH
wiler-Ill get him to use his influence with
Mrs. Hop. So cheer up, my boy; he'll make
it all right"
The appearance of bouquet on the table
of Mrs. Hopkinson was no rare event; never
theless, Mr.. Gashwiler's was not there Its
hideous contrasts had offended her womans
eye-it is observable that good taste survives
the wreck of ali the other feminine virtues
and she had distributed it to make bouton-
nieres for other gentlemen. Yet, when he
appeared, she said to him hastily. putting her
little hand over the cardiac region:
I'm so glad you came But you gave me
such fright an hour ago."
Mr.. Gashwiler was both pleased and as